This gluten free strawberry cake, made with real roasted strawberries nestled on top of a tender yellow cake, is packed with fresh strawberry flavor.
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What makes this gluten free strawberry cake special?
We roast the berries in this gluten free strawberry cake before they're nestled on top of the yellow cake batter, so their flavor is super intense. When they release more moisture during baking, they turn the very top of the cake custard-like.
The crumb is so moist that it keeps for days, just sitting there on the counter, loosely covered (if you have a cloche that fits over a cake plate, that's perfect, but some plastic wrap will do just fine).
Unlike some strawberry cakes or gluten free strawberry cake mixes made with artificial strawberry flavoring or jello, this cake is made with real, fresh strawberries.
Why roast the strawberries before baking them?
When it's the height of strawberry season wherever you live, you can tell because the strawberries at your local grocery store are fragrant and bright red outside. If you close your eyes and walk close to an open container, you'll smell their aroma.
There aren't that many months a year when strawberries are at their peak—or even that the batch you buy is perfect for eating raw. But every strawberry, once roasted with a touch of sugar and salt, becomes fragrant and flavorful.
If your strawberries are at their best, you might also want to try making our gluten free strawberry shortcake recipe, too!
What happens when you cook strawberries?
When you roast the strawberries first, much of their juice is released, turning even the wimpiest strawberries into sticky, bright red delights, with the deep flavor to match.
Then just nest them, cut side down, on top of the smooth cake batter. I like to arrange them in nesting circles with a common center, but it's just because it looks beautiful.
The result is a super moist and tender cake that stays fresh for days. This is a rare cake that I don't mind storing in the refrigerator for a day or so, which can be drying.
If you're looking for a pink cake with strawberries in the batter, rather than strawberries baked on top, we have that, too. Just click over to our recipe for gluten free strawberry cupcakes, which are made with our strawberry syrup.
Can you make this cake with frozen strawberries?
I think you probably can—but only if you can find frozen, halved strawberries. I haven't tried this yet, but I have some suggestions to make if you're considering it.
Berries shouldn't be defrosted at all before baking with them. They get very soggy, which is why you can bake our gluten free blueberry muffins with frozen berries, but only if they're still frozen when you add them to the muffin batter.
Frozen strawberries usually whole and can't be halved while frozen. If you can find frozen strawberries that are already halved, I think you might be able to successfully roast them.
Follow the recipe as written, but work quickly with the frozen strawberries. Let them defrost in the oven, not on the counter.
Tips for success in baking this gluten free strawberry cake
A lovely, brown crust forms on the outside of this cake, as it takes a bit longer to bake than a “regular” gluten free vanilla cake. Of course, you don't want the cake to burn before it's fully baked.
To ensure it bakes evenly, without burning on the bottom, be sure to bake it in a light-colored metal pan. If the cake starts to brown too quickly on top, cover the top with aluminum foil as it finishes baking.
Determining doneness is a little more subtle than the classic method of inserting a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Since the top layer should have a bit of a custard-like texture, a toothpick or other cake tester won't come out clean even when the cake is fully baked.
Instead, bake until the cake has pulled away from the side of the pan, is lightly golden brown all over (lighter in the center), and the center springs back pretty readily when pressed it gently with a finger. As long as the cake isn't visibly sunken in the center, it shouldn't collapse when it cools even if the center is slightly underbaked.
Gluten free strawberry cake ingredients and substitution suggestions
Dairy free strawberry cake
The dairy in this recipe is in the form of butter and milk or buttermilk. To replace the butter, I'd recommend trying vegan butter. My favorite brands are Melt and Miyoko's Kitchen.
For the milk, you can use any sort of unsweetened nondairy milk, as long as it's not nonfat. If you'd like to use something like buttermilk, for a slightly more tender cake, use half nondairy milk and half nondairy plain yogurt, by volume.
Egg free strawberry cake
There's only one egg in this recipe, so you should be able to replace it with a “chia egg.” Place 1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds and 1 tablespoon lukewarm water in a small bowl, mix, and allow to gel.
Gluten Free Strawberry Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the strawberries
- 1 ½ pounds fresh strawberries hulled and halved
- 2 tablespoons (24 g) granulated sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Cake
- 1 ½ cups (210 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend I used Better Batter; click through for full info
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum omit if your blend already contains it
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 (50 g) egg weighed out of shell at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup (4 fl. oz.) milk or buttermilk at room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 inch round cake pan, and set it aside.
- First, roast the strawberries. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
- In a medium-size bowl, place the prepared strawberries, granulated sugar, and salt, and toss to coat the berries. Place the coated berries in an even layer on the baking sheet, cut side down.
- Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and roast the strawberries for 35 minutes or until they are very soft and their juice is reduced to a thick liquid. Remove the strawberries from the oven, and set aside to cool briefly.
- Make the cake. In a large bowl, place the flour blend, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and granulated sugar, and whisk to combine well. Add the butter, egg, vanilla, and milk or buttermilk, and mix to combine. The batter will be thick, especially if you used buttermilk.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared round cake pan, and smooth into an even layer with a wet spatula. Place the roasted strawberries, cut side down, on top of the cake batter about 1/4 inch apart from one another in nesting circles, with a common center.
- Place the cake in the center of the preheated oven and reduce the oven temperature to 325°F. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the cake is light golden brown, has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, and the cake springs back when pressed gently in the center. If the cake begins to brown too quickly, cover it loosely with aluminum foil. A cake tester won’t come out clean because of the strawberries, especially in the very center.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
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Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
Tabula says
Strawberries sank instantly and are now stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cake broke in two. I did follow the instructions. A soft gelatinous blend of dough and baked strawberries lie on top of the cake now.
It has to be my first cake to fail in 14 years of baking. I do understand that gluten free cakes are harder to bake though. Anyway, probably way too much liquid. Not good as it was supposed to be for a national celebration.
Nicole Hunn says
If you’re new to gluten free baking, I would look first to your gluten free flour blend, Tabula. You must use one of my recommended blends for my recipes, this cake included, to work as expected. Please see the all purpose gluten free flour blend page, which is linked here in this recipe and all others, for full information. If you use a proper blend and measure by weight, with a well-balanced recipe like this one, gluten free isn’t harder at all. But you can’t just use any blend, as we are replacing a conventional, gluten-containing blend and there is no one single flour that can do that.
Cherie says
Wouldn’t it be easier to incorporate the butter if you beat it first then added the egg and the milk? I did it in the order given and the butter stayed in huge chunks so I whipped it with the egg, added the milk and then added the wet ingredients to the dry. Still, the butter did not incorporate well.
Nicole Hunn says
Your butter was not at the right temperature, Cherie, if it was in clumps. Even if your butter was at temperature but your buttermilk wasn’t, the butter will clump. Nothing substitutes for proper temperature of all ingredients as specified in the recipe.
Sarah says
Can’t download or print due to all the horrible adds for pdf’s. What’s going on?
Nicole Hunn says
You are free to browse the website without having to provide an email address, Sarah. You can no longer print my free recipes without joining “Grow,” which helps me monetize my hard work at no cost to you.
Sophie says
I’ve just put this in the oven, although I used fresh apricots and added cardamom to the batter. We’ll see how my little experiment goes !
Jan T. says
I had so much strawberries left over. I’m wondering should the recipe be 1 1/2 cups instead of 1 1/2# pounds? I tried to fit as many as I could on top, but more than half was left over. I think then the berries were a bit too close because the center sank a bit and wasn’t quite done. It also overflowed the pan just a bit. Regardless it was still good. Not too sweet and had a wonderful strawberry flavor. Roasting strawberries is definitely a new technique that I will use again. We used the extras on yogurt.
Nicole Hunn says
The recipe is correct as written, Jan. It sounds like perhaps you sliced the strawberries quite thin, and used the less beautiful ends. I like to use the center slices primarily, since they are the ones that really look like “strawberries.” Some will often burn, too, since there’s so much liquid, so it’s useful to have extra.
Jan T says
Any suggestions about how to get the cake out of the pan in one piece?
Nicole Hunn says
I guess that means you’ve had some trouble, then, Jan? It’s a moist cake, and has berries on top, but I take it out the way I take out all round and square cakes. Wait until it’s completely cool, hold the cake in the pan in one hand, and flip the pan onto the outstretched other hand, then quickly turn that back over onto a waiting cooling rack, face-up.
Alana Carmichael says
Could use substitute granulated sugar for coconut or monk fruit sugar? Thinking they are basically granulated sugar anyways.
P.S. Your recipes are the only ones I make that turn out – most times!
Nicole Hunn says
Coconut sugar has a very coarse ground and has more moisture than granulated sugar. It’s not a 1 for 1 substitute at all. Monk fruit is a sugar alternative, and to use it would require modifying the recipe to add more moisture (alternative sugars tend to be drying). Every ingredient matters, which might account for why your baking from my recipes turns out most, but not all, times, Alana!
Shanna says
Can you use a Better Batter yellow cake mix with this? Would the results be close?
Nicole Hunn says
Hi, Shanna, the cake recipe is written to be able to absorb the additional moisture that the berries release during baking. I would stick with the recipe as written, but if you’d like to experiment, let us know how it goes!
Jen says
One word – amazing!
Laura says
This is such a nice and yummy cake, thank you Nicole! Cannot wait for your bread cookbook!
Perhaps someone asked this question before: if I wanted to replace the powder milk in my all purpose gluten free flour by milk, how would it affect the milk proportions in the recipe? Many thanks
gfshoestring says
Hi, Laura,
I wouldn’t suggest trying to replace the powdered milk with liquid in a flour recipe. It isn’t a 1:1. I would suggest that, if you don’t to use dry milk, just use the Mock Better Batter blend!
xoxo Nicole
Maggie Nowakowska says
How big of strawberries do you use, and does it make a difference? Up here in WA state, we can get incredible strawberries, but they’re smaller than what is usually found in grocery stores and more delicate. Is the roasting something best used with those bigger berries found in the stores?
And, yes, what do you recommend be done with the roasted juice? Use is as a glaze for the cake pieces?
Jennifer Sasse says
This looks soo heavenly. I’m going to be making it soon.
I know this makes me sound like I grew up in the depression (I did not!) but what did you do with all that lovely caramelly juice that came off the strawberries? could you spread it on toast? it just looks kind of lovely to waste to me…..
TODAY – I am going to preorder your breadbook – I promise! :)